Sk hynix shares jump as company announces mass production of updated ai chip

In this article * NVDA * SSNLF * MU Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT SK Hynix Inc. signage at the company's office in Seongnam, South Korea, on Monday, April 22, 2024. SK

Hynix is scheduled to release earnings figures on April 25. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images SK Hynix shares surged more than 9%

Thursday morning after the company said it has started mass production of a new version of its high-bandwidth memory chips and aims for delivery by year-end. The product would be the

world's first 12-layer version of HBM3E, which refers to the latest generation of an advanced memory chip that's capable of handling high-end generative artificial intelligence

work. SK Hynix said the chip would have a 36 gigabyte capacity, the largest among existing HBM chips. That's a 50% increase in capacity from the company's previous eight-layer

chip, which it started mass producing in March, while maintaining the same thickness, the company said. The South Korean giant has been a main supplier of the high-bandwidth memory chips

catering to AI chipsets for companies like Nvidia. It plans to deliver the latest product by the end of the year. The development came as the world's second-largest memory chipmaker

seeks to continue its dominance in the AI memory chip market. HBM is a type of dynamic random access memory, known as DRAM, where chips are vertically stacked to save space and reduce power

consumption. SK Hynix, Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics are the three main manufacturers of HBM chips. Overnight stateside, Micron issued surprisingly strong sales and profit

forecasts for its fiscal first quarter, an indication of continued benefits from booming demand for HBM chips. The largest U.S. maker of computer memory chips expects first-quarter profit of

$1.74 per share on $8.7 billion in revenue. That beat market projections for profits of $1.65 per share on $8.28 billion in revenue, according to LSEG consensus estimates. Buoyed by

Micron's upbeat forecasts and SK Hynix's announcement, Asian chip stocks rallied Thursday morning, with Tokyo Electron climbing 7%, Advantest jumping 5%. The world's largest

memory chipmaker Samsung Electronics advanced over 3%. The benchmark South Korean blue chip Kospi index rose 2%. _— Reuters contributed to the story._